London (AFP)

The British government gave the green light on Tuesday to a limited participation of Chinese Huawei in the 5G network, ignoring the pressures of its American ally a few days before Brexit.

The Digital Ministry announced in a statement that the UK is allowing "at risk" telecom equipment manufacturers like Huawei to access its 5G networks, without clearly mentioning Chinese.

Huawei immediately said "reassured by the confirmation from the British government that we can continue to work with our customers to continue the deployment of 5G", in a separate statement.

The government move came after a meeting of the National Security Council, made up of a handful of ministers and senior security officials, chaired by Boris Johnson.

Operators like Huawei will however be authorized in non-strategic infrastructures such as relay antennas, which allow the connection of mobile phones to the network, with a market share limited to 35%.

Digital Minister Nicky Morgan said he wanted the best possible network but "not at the expense of our national security".

The United Kingdom is opening the doors to Huawei, which is already involved in the 4G network of several operators, including BT, Vodafone and Three.

This decision is one of the most strategic that Boris Johnson has had to make since coming to power last summer, and which has since been bolstered by a large victory in the December elections.

- American pressures -

By authorizing Huawei, even partially, it takes the risk of displeasing the United States, at a time when the country hopes to tighten ties with Washington by negotiating a trade agreement once Brexit is signed in a few days.

American officials had spared no effort to bend London, between closed-door meetings and warnings launched especially at the start of the week by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, describing the upcoming British decision as "capital".

The United States has been demanding for long months from European countries, and in particular from the United Kingdom, that they exclude Huawei from their networks, citing its close links with the Chinese government and the risks of espionage, which the Chinese group has always denied.

The United Kingdom and the United States are part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network alongside Canada, New Zealand and Australia,

London would have struggled to ban Huawei, which has a technological edge over its two main competitors, Nokia and Ericsson, and has been present in the UK for 15 years.

Especially if the Chinese had been rejected, it would have had to remove its relay antennas from existing 4G infrastructure, which would be costly and would affect subscriber bills while delaying the transition to 5G.

The security services had on several occasions ensured that it was possible to work with the Chinese equipment supplier without compromising security.

The opening towards Huawei should cringe in Westminster parliament and in the government, Interior Minister Priti Patel and Defense Minister Ben Wallace opposed it, according to the British press.

If Australia or Japan followed suit in the United States by choosing to ban Huawei on their soil, the European Union, which the United Kingdom is about to leave, announced Tuesday that it did not count exclude the equipment supplier in principle but would lay down "strict rules".

The French government should make its first arbitrations from mid-February. On the other hand, most of the large emerging markets, Brazil and India at the head, are opening their arms to the Chinese equipment supplier.

© 2020 AFP